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Books

Authors' Amazon Awareness 174

Geoffrey.landis writes "Many book lovers were surprised this week when Amazon.com removed books from the publisher Macmillan from the shelves (later restored), including such popular imprints as St. Martin's, Henry Holt, and the science fiction publisher Tor. But readers shouldn't have been surprised, according to the Author's Guild. The Author's Guild lists a history of earlier instances where Amazon stopped listing a publisher's books in order to pressure them to accept terms, dating back to early in 2008, when Amazon removed the 'buy' buttons for works from the British publisher Bloomsbury, representing such authors as William Boyd, Khaled Hosseini, and J.K. Rowling. In response, the Author's Guild has set up a service called Who Moved My Buy Button to alert authors when their books are removed from Amazon's lists." Amazon's actions have generated ill-will on the parts of many authors, who — being authors — are only too happy to explain their viewpoints at length. Two such examples are Tobias Buckell's breakdown of why Amazon isn't the righteous defender of low-prices they claim to be and Charlie Stross's round-up of the situation.

Comment My experience (Score 1) 844

Graduated with a MSEE from a top 25 public engineering school. First job was 80k + 20k overtime as a Government contractor. Three years, a job change, a relocation, and couple promotions later I'm now making 130k + 50k bonus. I'm more of a manager / team lead now, but I still get to work at a very high level with the code. So is that a "lucrative" career? Depends on your expectations. For me, I'm hoping one day it will be as I move up the ranks.

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